Influence by Robert B. Cialdini
Posted on July 12th, 2006
Influence is a book about compliance tactics. Compliance tactics are the things people use on one another when they're engaged in the art of persuasion-- anything from saying something in a certain way with ulterior motive to not saying something at all. It's almost like a how-to manual for salespeople, but with enough grounding in psychological research to describe something deeper than just the hard sell.
At first it's hard to believe that gullibility is so high and that automatic behavior patterns are so easily invoked. Cialdini writes, "Most individuals in our culture have developed a set of trigger features for compliance, that is, a set of specific pieces of information that normally tell us when compliance with a request is likely to be correct and beneficial. Each of these trigger features for compliance can be used like a weapon (of influence) to stimulate people to agree to requests."
If you're selling something, those requests can involve a purchasing decision. People don't only purchase goods and services though. Through their actions, they buy things like a sense of belonging in a larger group or cause or a feeling of righteousness for having done the right thing.
Even something as seemingly innocuous as doing an otherwise appreciated favor can be a compliance tactic in disguise because it can invoke an obligation of reciprocity:
Against a requester who employs the rule for reciprocation, you and I face a formidable foe. By presenting us with either an initial favor or an initial concession, the requester will have enlisted a powerful ally int he campaign for our compliance. At first glance, our fortunes in such a situation would appear dismal. We could comply with the requester's wish and, in so doing, succumb to the reciprocity rule. Or, we could refuse to comply and thereby suffer the brunt of the rule's force upon our deeply conditioned feelings of fairness and obligation. Surrender or suffer heavy casualties.
It would be a bit extreme to read Influence and decided that everyone is out to get you. On the other hand, only the most extreme patsy would miss the most obvious signs that someone is trying to manipulate them. It's easy to read stories about the elderly being swindled out of their retirement savings and think it could never happen to you. In lots of cases that's probably true. But it's the other cases where the stakes aren't quite as high that Cialdini makes you think twice about. Should you necessarily trust an authority figure more than a used car salesman, strictly on the grounds that they're an authority figure?
Influence is ultimately about trust. The research Cialdini brings together in this book shows that people can be overly trusting if they rely to heavily on their biases and automatic behaviors. It isn't so much a question of gullability as it is awareness and consequence.